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Acid Reflex With Dairy?

Tigercat17

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Tigercat17 Enthusiast
Tigercat17
Posted

Hi everyone,

I've been having problems with acid reflux since July & I've been gluten free for five weeks. I'm taking Prevacid, which I don't think it's helping, & I'm still having acid reflux & I suspect it's from dairy. I seen my GI doc today & he didn't think it was possible, so I wondering if anyone else has experienced this? I also mentioned to him, from what I understand, that a lot of people with newly diagnosed celiac have problems with dairy & he said he never heard of it? I don't ahve stomach pain or D when I eat dairy, it's just this throat pain.

I'm so confused & my throat is always hurting. He wants to do a Bravo test & another endoscopy on me a couple of weeks. He wants to make sure I actually have acid reflux since this all started with a "mysterious" throat infection.

I did cut back on dairy but didn't cut it out all the way. Today I drank an Ensure & it seems my throat felt worse. But it does say it's lactose free? But it has milk in it? I don't get it...

I don't feel the sore throat pain while I'm sleeping, it's only during the day. So, now starting tomorrow I'm going to cut out dairy all together for about a week & see if it helps.

Has anyone else had this problem? And if so, what did you do to help? I'm not really sure it's the dairy, but I'm going to see. And I eat everything at home in my gluten-free kitchen. I'm very careful with labels, too. I don't eat anything unless I'm positively sure it's gluten free. Any advice? Thanks!

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Mrs. Smith Explorer
Mrs. Smith
Posted

Yes!! I cannot eat dairy. I have tested this theory on myself many times and it goes away everytime I quit dairy. I also stay away from tomato products and citrus. My heartburn is non-existant when I avoid these foods.

knittygirl1014 Rookie
knittygirl1014
Posted

Lactose is only part of milk- it is the sugar. Casein is the protein part, which is actually what irritates many celiacs. Lactose can be removed from products or digested with lactase (Lactaid), but casein has to be avoided. When I gave up all dairy (including butter, and trace amounts in anything) my GI problems improved vastly. I was also on an acid-reducer before and it didn't help. Also, if you've only been gluten-free for five weeks, your system is probably very irritated right now. Giving up dairy is so hard, but it's worth it. I've been able to add it back after 10 months, but for some it takes longer. In the meantime, rice milk, almond milk and coconut milk are great replacements.

Joe0123 Contributor
Joe0123
Posted

Oh yes, I had terrible heartburn for about 5 months (felt like someone was sitting on my chest all day :/ ) and dairy would always make it worse. Going gluten free and dairy free really helped that. So I would suggest you stop taking the Prevacid (I was taking Nexium for awhile and I know that stuff isn't cheap not to mention it didn't help) and give up dairy for awhile to let your digestive system heal.

nmlove Contributor
nmlove
Posted

Sure, acid reflux can be caused by a lot of things, including dairy. I had to cut out dairy for my baby (who's reflux is worse by the way when I consume dairy) and I actually noticed I felt better without dairy! I never had a reflux problem except during pregnancies and following the birth of my third this summer it never went away. But I know dairy makes it worse when I've had some. As well as other biggies - chocolate, tomatoes, citrus, junk. :) Good luck figuring it out!

Tigercat17 Enthusiast
Tigercat17
Posted
  • Author

Thanks everyone for your input! I was being to think I was the only one with reflux form dairy.

It's been three days of being dairy free for me & boy, is it hard! I still have the reflux though... :(

Does it usually take a long time for the acid reflux to go away? I know my doctor said to go dairy free for a week & see f it helps. Or should I try two weeks?

It's nice to know other people have had acid reflux from milk. too. It seems like it's such a long healing process.

chiroptera Apprentice
chiroptera
Posted

YES!!! Not to sound weird :o but I get happy to hear that others have the same problem as one of my twin daughters!! GERD was her MAIN symptom of Celiac; her identical twin had more typical digestive issues. We found out via Enterolab testing that she is gluten, casein (the milk protein) and egg intolerant. If she does not eat ANYTHING with those ingredients she has NO gerd!!! We are SO glad to find this out as we tried Prevaid as a last resort for a short while and it helped only with her actual burning but not with her other Gerd symptoms such as cough, chest pain, throat mucous, etc.

Honestly it is hard for her/us to not have casein and dairy. Much harder than just gluten. But is is so worth it. Now with Halloween (she is just nine) she did have some regular (but gluten-free) candy and she has been sickish for two days with Gerd.

It is so obvious that she can't have casein! We love soy and almond and rice milk but we have trouble with cheese because you will have to have vegan cheese as the rice/soy cheeses still contain casein. We don't like the vegan stuff so she does without and I just make her stuff like cheeseless pizza, plain pasta, etc.

Keep up the hard work though! I bet you will feel better and need no drugs! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Nadia2009 Enthusiast
Nadia2009
Posted
YES!!! Not to sound weird :o but I get happy to hear that others have the same problem as one of my twin daughters!! GERD was her MAIN symptom of Celiac; her identical twin had more typical digestive issues. We found out via Enterolab testing that she is gluten, casein (the milk protein) and egg intolerant. If she does not eat ANYTHING with those ingredients she has NO gerd!!! We are SO glad to find this out as we tried Prevaid as a last resort for a short while and it helped only with her actual burning but not with her other Gerd symptoms such as cough, chest pain, throat mucous, etc.

Honestly it is hard for her/us to not have casein and dairy. Much harder than just gluten. But is is so worth it. Now with Halloween (she is just nine) she did have some regular (but gluten-free) candy and she has been sickish for two days with Gerd.

It is so obvious that she can't have casein! We love soy and almond and rice milk but we have trouble with cheese because you will have to have vegan cheese as the rice/soy cheeses still contain casein. We don't like the vegan stuff so she does without and I just make her stuff like cheeseless pizza, plain pasta, etc.

Keep up the hard work though! I bet you will feel better and need no drugs! :)

Hi there,

I didn't know that Gerd was one of the celiac symptoms. I have acid reflux from most foods I eat except when I eat non spicy meat with vegetables. Sugar, milk, spices and fried food are the worst. For many years, I naturally got rid of the problem by following a 80% alkaline 20% acidic diet and watch my saliva ph. It is easy to it with little band paper you buy at the pharmacy or help food store.

Tigercat17 Enthusiast
Tigercat17
Posted
  • Author
Oh yes, I had terrible heartburn for about 5 months (felt like someone was sitting on my chest all day :/ ) and dairy would always make it worse. Going gluten free and dairy free really helped that. So I would suggest you stop taking the Prevacid (I was taking Nexium for awhile and I know that stuff isn't cheap not to mention it didn't help) and give up dairy for awhile to let your digestive system heal.

Thanks for responding! It's nice to know I'm not crazy! My GI doctor thinks dairy wasn't making my reflux worse, but it was. I think I need a new GI doctor.

Anyway, I've been gluten free for nine weeks now & still having acid reflux with my throat. My doctor wants to do the Bravo Ph study on me & another endoscopy this Thursday. More Stress... it really doesn't help the acid reflux.... :huh:

I did just stop taking the Prevacid as of yesterday. In the last few days I was so bloated, con., full feeling, my stomach was hurting more & I really felt that I couldn't eat. And I'm only 102 lbs at 5'1. In the last four days I lost three pounds because I felt so full & I couldn't eat much. It's pretty scary when I can't eat & I'm so skinny. This happened to me before when I was taking Priolsec after a month, so I guess my body just can't handle the ppi's after a month. And I really felt like my throat was was getting better. I'm not sure if this is because of the Prevacid or just being gluten free. And especially when I cut out the dairy. I felt it really was helping. Now I'm just taking the Zantac 150 & Tums Ultra 1,000 & hoping that it eventually goes away. It was so much worse when I was eating gluten. I did eat a lot better this morning so I'm thinking it is the Prevacid that's making me feel full. My GI doctor thinks I'm crazy...

I'm wondering if I'm having so much acid reflux because my stomach is so badly damaged? Did your heartburn go away after five months being gluten free or did it stop completely as soon as you were gluten free? I've read the other people had acid reflux too, and when they went gluten free it completely went away. I really hope mine does. It's really uncomfortable. Being on a gluten free diet & a GERD diet is so hard & I really need to put on some weight.

I did stop the dairy for nine days & I did feel like my acid reflux was better, but not completely gone. Then I started drinking the Ensure again for four days & it seemed like it got worse again. So now I'm stopping it again. My doctor recommended taking Lactaid with it, but I really don't think it would help much since the ensure is lactose free anyway. I really think it's the milk protein in it that's making the acid reflux worse.

This is so crazy for me since I never had any stomach problems before & I never had any acid reflux before either. I ate anything I wanted & then all of the sudden I got this horrible sore throat in July & I lost my voice. I went to eight different doctors & no one knew why until they did the endoscopy. It took them two months to figure it out.

I'm so thankful for this forum. I learned so much for all of you. It's so nice to know there are people out there who understand.

Thanks everyone!

  • 8 years later...
aya Apprentice
aya
Posted
On 10/30/2009 at 3:08 AM, Tigercat17 said:

Hi everyone,

 

I've been having problems with acid reflux since July & I've been gluten free for five weeks. I'm taking Prevacid, which I don't think it's helping, & I'm still having acid reflux & I suspect it's from dairy. I seen my GI doc today & he didn't think it was possible, so I wondering if anyone else has experienced this? I also mentioned to him, from what I understand, that a lot of people with newly diagnosed celiac have problems with dairy & he said he never heard of it? I don't ahve stomach pain or D when I eat dairy, it's just this throat pain.

 

I'm so confused & my throat is always hurting. He wants to do a Bravo test & another endoscopy on me a couple of weeks. He wants to make sure I actually have acid reflux since this all started with a "mysterious" throat infection.

I did cut back on dairy but didn't cut it out all the way. Today I drank an Ensure & it seems my throat felt worse. But it does say it's lactose free? But it has milk in it? I don't get it...

 

I don't feel the sore throat pain while I'm sleeping, it's only during the day. So, now starting tomorrow I'm going to cut out dairy all together for about a week & see if it helps.

 

Has anyone else had this problem? And if so, what did you do to help? I'm not really sure it's the dairy, but I'm going to see. And I eat everything at home in my gluten-free kitchen. I'm very careful with labels, too. I don't eat anything unless I'm positively sure it's gluten free. Any advice? Thanks!

Tigercat17,

I would appreciate if you could tell us how you are going? I am in a quite same position, desperately searching what could be the reason for my reflux. So I would love to know what was causing tour reflux and how did you solve it.  

Thank you,

Aya

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